Oil reserves = offshore drilling?

T^T help me out..pleaseOil reserves = offshore drilling?
Yes there is more oil available to us if we drill off shore. But what almost never gets mentioned is that if you start planning today to put in new wells, it will be 7 years before we see a single drop of oil from the first well. And it would be 2020 before we are getting enough from new wells to significantly affect the amount we import.Oil reserves = offshore drilling?
If I understand your question, you're asking whether these two things are the same: they aren't.





Oil Reserves: To my knowledge, this refers to oil we have sitting in reserve, available to go to refineries in the event that other sources of crude oil are no longer available. These would keep us going for a while but would likely be severely rationed.





Offshore drilling: we know that there are multiple offshore sites that have oil. During the summer when Congress was due to break for recess, the Republicans wanted to stay and get an UP or DOWN vote on offshore drilling. Nancy Pelosi shut down the Senate and literally had the lights turned off. The Republicans refused to leave, demanding that Democrats come back and continue discussing the topic. This was during the time when we were at $4.00 plus per gallon, and lawmakers wanted to get relief going. It put a tremendous amount of pressure on the Democrats, who were rightly seen as more interested in party politics than in helping the American consumer.





Then there are the oil leases that were mentioned in the debate tonight. Oil companies have drilling leases but (and I got this from Limbaugh's site) they're apparently too short to allow for EPA rules and test drilling. This could be resolved by Congress but Congress doesn't want to allow the drilling in the first place, so they've created an impossible situation.
Do to previous drilling and seismographic work, we know for sure there are oil reserves under the ocean or in offshore drilling.
So long as it's not in a nature preserve or in one of the Great Lakes- I will go along. If it's intended in those places I will not leave our politicians alone until a the vote is over.